CHICAGO — Imagine if there were a way, on every New England Patriots possession, to prevent Tom Brady from throwing the football. Or if, somehow, a defense could find a loophole in basketball’s rules that ensured Stephen Curry couldn’t touch the ball on every offensive possession.
Both would be sound strategies. But such strategies would also hurt the appeal of those sports.
We want to see the best play. Watching opposing teams prevent that doesn’t make for great theater.
In a loss on Sunday to the Chicago Cubs, Washington Nationals outfielder Bryce Harper, the reigning National League MVP, was walked a record six times (three times intentionally) and was also hit by a pitch. He was without an official at-bat.
The strategy was great for the Cubs but bad for the game.
“It’s kind of like in basketball hack-a-Shaq, whoever they’re hacking,” Nationals manager Dusty Baker said. “I guess that’s part of the game and part of strategy.
“But the fans didn’t come here to see him walk. They came here to see him swing the bat.”
Well, considering how tortured Cubs fans have been for, say, the last century—give or take a few years—Baker isn’t entirely correct. Fans flocked to Wrigley Field primarily to see the Cubs win.
But his point is well-taken. Sports fans want to see the best compete. Walking Harper so many times robbed fans of the opportunity to watch the game’s best pitcher, Jake Arrieta, face its best hitter in Harper.
Sunday was like watching the same bad movie seven straight times.
Baseball is desperate for drama. The MLB playoffs provide that. But the course of a 162-game schedule can, at times, seem as redundant as a season of cop-show storylines.
Harper has made it clear that he wants to amp up the excitement.
That’s impossible, though, if he isn’t allowed to swing the bat. Imagine an NBA Finals where the defense fouled Curry every possession to keep him from shooting three-pointers. It wouldn’t be very entertaining.
Baseball is a sport that allows opponents to fully avoid a problem. It’s a flaw few other sports share.
“When you’re a pitcher, you’re not going to not challenge a guy because of what their name is and what they can do,” said Tanner Roark, who started for Washington on Sunday. “You can’t play scared. This is a game, and it’s not ‘here’s your free pass.’ Sometimes it calls for that, but I think it’s scared baseball.”
Roark may be posturing. But he’s right about this: We don’t want to see the Cubs or Arrieta hide in a corner.
We may only get one more chance to see Arrieta face Harper this season, assuming the right-handed Cubs starter is scheduled to pitch during the two teams’ three-game series in Washington June 13-15. It’s the last time the teams are scheduled to play this season.
Sunday, baseball was robbed of, arguably, its most anticipated matchup. Twice the Cubs walked Harper to load the bases for first baseman Ryan Zimmerman.
“The way he approaches the game, he tries to pound the strike zone, but he also pitches to his strengths, and that’s what he does every time he goes out there,” Harper said. “So I don’t think he’s going to change his plan to try to get me to go this way or that way. So I think you just try to go up there, wait for your pitch and try to drive. That’s what I did today. I didn’t really get anything over the plate that I could try to drive.”
The short-term solution is for Zimmerman to hit. He bats fourth behind Harper and has struggled. Zimmerman is only hitting .236/.293/.340. He was 0-for-7 Sunday, which is part of the reason the Cubs walked Harper to get to him. If Zimmerman were raking, this wouldn’t be an issue.
But intentional walks have always been a part of the game. The problem with them—that a manager can choose whom his team faces—was magnified Sunday.
Baseball needs a long-term fix to a strategy that is hurting its appeal.
The NFL changed its rules to protect quarterbacks after noticing injuries to the position hurt the game. The NBA eliminated the hand check to allow for more offense.
Yet MLB lingers far behind in curtailing its rules to allow for more showmanship.
Quite possibly, the game might need to allow a batter—and those on base—to advance two bases if a team throws him four straight balls. The way to eliminate the strategy the Cubs employed on Harper would be to make the consequences greater.
This way, a manager would never walk a player with runners in scoring position. An intentional walk would score a runner who was on second.
Other leagues have changed their rules to better the game.
This may seem extreme, but people thought it was drastic when the NCAA tournament extended its field to include 64 teams and 68 after that. Some thought enhancing rules to protect quarterbacks was over the top. Others detested the idea of eliminating the hand check. In all cases, it worked out.
MLB needs to do something extreme to eliminate what happened Sunday.
Chicago manager Joe Maddon decided who would win the Arrieta-Harper battle by gifting the hitter first base. The strategy worked out great for the Cubs.
It would work out better for the game if we let the players decide.
Seth Gruen is a national baseball columnist for Bleacher Report. Follow him on Twitter @SethGruen.
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